Liquid Natural Flatulence
Trei, Peter
ptrei at rsasecurity.com
Wed Mar 31 11:24:29 PST 2004
Bob wrote:
>Justing wrote:
>>Haven't you ever seen a phase diagram?
>Sigh. Yes. Here's one, for water:
><http://wine1.sb.fsu.edu/chm1045/notes/Forces/Phase/Forces06.htm>
>And your point is? Let's see, if we rapidly cool boiling water by
>dispersing it in supercold air... somewhere past the triple-point, it
>goes straight through the solid state, do not pass go, and
>*sublimates* directly into the air.
>Now, maybe, it freezes at the molecular level, or something, first.
>But to the observer, it never reaches a solid state, and it turns
>directly into a gas. It sublimates.
>My understanding is that it has something to do with the extreme
>temperature differential. Like you get with a bunch of boiling LNG
>floating on the Mystic River under the Tobin Bridge. Which is what
>that guy from the USDOE said.
The argument here is over your use of the word 'sublimate'. Liquid
water can't sublimate by definition, since its a liquid. We're
saying that your chemist friend is using the word incorrectly.
That's all.
Peter
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